1. Technical Field
The present invention is related to a color-changing bulb of instrument panel of a vehicle. The color of the instrument panel can be easily changed simply by means of replacing the original bulb with the color-changing bulb without changing the structure of the instrument panel or the layout of the original circuit.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A car or a motorcycle is equipped with an instrument panel for showing the information of running of the car. This is quite important to a driver. FIG. 1 shows a conventional car-used instrument panel 1. The instrument panel is illuminated by various measures. For example, an electroluminescent board can be used as a light source for smoothly lightening the instrument panel. Still for example, Taiwanese Patent Publication No. 484239 discloses an illuminating device for vehicle-used meters. In the above illuminating device, multiple LED are arranged around the scales of the instrument panel for clearly showing important information of the running state of the vehicle.
Conventionally, multiple bulb seats 2 and multiple small bulbs 3 are disposed in the car-used meter 1 as the illuminating device. FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram of the conventional illuminating device. FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the bulb seat and small bulb of the conventional illuminating device mounted in the car-used instrument panel. The bulbs 3 are installed in the bulb seats 2 which are connected with a brightness adjuster 4. The brightness adjuster 4 is generally a variable resistor for adjusting the magnitude of the current passing through the small bulbs 3 so as to adjust the brightness of the bulbs 3.
When it is desired to change the color of light of the instrument panel, it is necessary to change the structure of the instrument panel or the layout of the circuit or add a different circuit to the instrument panel. This is quite inconvenient for a user to DIY modify the instrument panel of the car. Moreover, the original instrument panel design may be destructed to cause great loss.
It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide a color-changing bulb of instrument panel of a vehicle. The color of the instrument panel can be easily changed simply by means of replacing the original bulb with the color-changing bulb. Therefore, it is unnecessary to change the structure of the instrument panel of the vehicle or the layout of the original circuit thereof.
According to the above object, the color-changing bulb of the present invention is made as a bulb and directly installable in a bulb seat of the instrument panel. The color-changing bulb includes a bulb housing defining a receiving space for receiving a light emitting diode and a circuit board. The light emitting diode is composed of multicolor light emitting chips. A controlling circuit is disposed on the circuit board and connected with the light emitting diode for driving the multicolor light emitting chips to emit light with multiple combinations of colors and provide variable illuminating effect.
The controlling circuit includes: a stabilizing unit for picking up the power in the bulb seat to supply the controlling circuit with necessary power; a voltage sampling unit for picking up the varied voltage value adjusted by a brightness adjuster; and an analog/digital converting unit connected with the voltage sampling unit and the multicolor light emitting chips of the light emitting diode. The analog/digital converting unit serves to convert the varied voltage value adjusted by the brightness adjuster into digital signal for lightening the multicolor light emitting chips to create multiple combinations of colors of light.
Alternatively, the controlling circuit includes: a stabilizing unit for picking up the power in the bulb seat to supply the controlling circuit with necessary power; a pulse generating unit for generating a pulse signal; and a digital cycle outputting unit connected with the pulse generating unit and the multicolor light emitting chips of the light emitting diode. Via the pulse signal of the pulse generating unit, the digital cycle outputting unit generates a cycling digital signal output for lightening the multicolor light emitting chips of the light emitting diode so as to create a circularly varied multicolor illumination effect.
Still alternatively, the controlling circuit includes: a stabilizing unit for picking up the power in the bulb seat to supply the controlling circuit with necessary power; a memory unit for memorizing the number of times of switching of the headlight switch to generate a corresponding digital signal; and a digital cycle outputting unit connected with the memory unit and the multicolor light emitting chips of the light emitting diode. In accordance with the digital signal generated by the memory unit corresponding to the number of times of switching of the headlight switch, the digital cycle outputting unit outputs to lighten the multicolor light emitting chips of the light emitting diode to variably emit multiple colors of light.
The present invention can be best understood through the following description and accompanying drawings wherein: